LONDON (AP) England, Spain and the Netherlands maintained perfect starts in World Cup qualifying Wednesday night to open big leads for spots in the 2010 tournament in South Africa, while Italy and Germany also were victors heading into a six-month break.
Wayne Rooney scored twice for England in a 3-1 victory at Belarus, four days after he had two goals in a 5-1 win over Kazakhstan at Wembley.
Defending champion Italy won 2-1 over visiting Montenegro, Germany won 1-0 at home against Wales and European champion Spain won 2-1 at Belgium.